Page 4947 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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I join the other speakers in commending the efforts of those dedicated women and men who work in the Legal Aid Office. Mr Collaery made the remark that the lights are often seen burning quite late at night in that office, and that is absolutely correct. Those people work extremely long hours and serve this community long and well.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure - Division 120 - Administration of Justice, $6,017,800
MR STEFANIAK (9.15): In relation to this area, I make a number of comments. I am pleased to see the court take steps, through the Government - because the Alliance Government would certainly have done exactly the same thing, and it is probably just a direct carryover - to attempt to enforce the backlog of unpaid court fines, which amount to over $1m. In fact, looking at this part, and some parts in the police area too, there is about $7m outstanding in fines and costs due to the ACT court system. Certainly, that should be chased up as a matter of urgency.
It is quite unacceptable that people who are convicted and fined should be able to get away without paying it. Also, that is a handy amount of revenue to come into Territory coffers. I think it is necessary, too, in these times, to have the increase in court fees and costs. Perhaps in some of the summary matters, costs for the summonses and things like that could even be increased further. Having practised in both New South Wales and the ACT, certainly in New South Wales - and, indeed, also in the ACT where we initially had court costs - costs were just part and parcel of going to court. If you were a defendant in a criminal matter and you were found guilty, or in a civil matter and you did your costs, you certainly were fully expected to pay them, and that was no problem.
In the ACT, during the Federal Government era we got a little bit lax and there were no such things as court costs. You would simply go along and be fined, pay your fine and that was it - quite unlike any other jurisdiction. Indeed, even before self-government, when we were being put on a self-governing footing from 1986 onwards, court costs came back in and I think that is entirely appropriate, particularly in hard economic times. Perhaps it is an area where further revenue can be raised for the Government, because basically it is something that defendants tend to expect to pay. It is part and parcel of the system.
There are considerable costs in terms of sending out summonses, even though often it is done by post now, a lot of paperwork is involved and a lot of court staff time is taken in relation to processing the necessary paperwork involved in getting court process out. So, I think there is considerable scope there for further revenue to be raised by the Government.
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